Music of Croatia
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The music of Croatia, like the country itself, has three major influences: the influence of the Mediterranean especially present in the coastal areas, of the Balkans especially in the mountainous, continental parts, and of central Europe in the central and northern parts of the country.
While both pop/rock and folk are rather popular in Croatia, the folk/pop combinations fare the best.
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[edit] Folk music
The traditional folk music of Croatia is mostly associated with the following:
[edit] Klapa
The klapa music is a form of a cappella singing. The word klapa translates as "a group of people" and traces its roots to litoral church singing. The motifs in general celebrate love, wine (grapes), country (homeland) and sea. Main elements of the music are harmony and melody, with rhythm very rarely being very important.
A klapa group consists of a first tenor, a second tenor, a baritone, and a bass. It is possibe to double all the voices apart from the first tenor. Although klapa is a capella music, on occasion it is possible to add a gentle guitar and a mandolin (instrument similar in appearance and sound to tamburitzas).
Klapa tradition is still very much alive, with new songs composed and festivals held. Many young people from Dalmatia treasure klapa and sing it regularly when going out eating/drinking. It is not unusual to hear amateura sing klapa music on the streets in the evenings over some food and wine.
It is usually composed of up to a dozen male singers singing very harmonic tunes. In recent times, female vocal groups have been quite popular, but in general male and female groups do not mix.
[edit] Tamburitza
Tamburitza (tamburica, diminutive of tambura) music is a form of folk music that involves these and related string instruments. It became increasingly popular in the 1800s, and small bands began to form, paralleling similar developments in Russia, Italy and the Ukraine.
The main themes of tamburitza songs are the common themes of love and happy village life. Tamburitza music is primarily associated with the northern, Pannonian part of the country. It is sometimes said that the first sextet of tambura players was formed by Pajo Kolarić of Osijek in 1847.
Traditional tamburitza ensembles are still commonplace, but more professional groups have formed in the last few decades. These include Zlatni dukati and Ex Panonia, the first such groups, Zdenac, Slavonske Lole, Berde Band and the modernized rock and roll-influenced Gazde. Also, professional groups from the U.S. have sprung up recently. One of the most famous is Otrov, from Pittsburgh,PA.
- See also: Bećarac
[edit] Gusle
The gusle music is played on this traditional string instrument. It is primarily rooted in the Croatian epic poetry with emphasis on important historical or patriotic events. It is the traditional instrument of inland Dalmatia and of Herzegovina, the part of Bosnia and Herzegovina with predominant Croatian population.
Gusle players are known for glorifying outlaws such as hajduks or uskoks of the long gone Turkish reign or exalting the recent heroes of the Croatian War of Independence. Andrija Kačić Miošić, a famous 18th century author, had also composed verses in form of the traditional folk poetry (deseterac, ten verses). His book Razgovor ugodni naroda slovinskog became Croatian folk Bible which inspired numerous gusle players ever since.
As for contemporary gusle players in Croatia, one person that particularly stands out is Mile Krajina. Krajina is a prolific folk poet and gusle player who gained cult status among some conservative groups. There are also several other prominent Croatian gusle players who often perform at various folk-festivals throughout Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Although some fans of tamburitza claim that the tambura is the most commonly used ethnic instrument in the United States, the first sound recordings of the Croatian instruments on the American soil were in fact those of gusle and mišnica performed by Peter Boro in California in 1939.
[edit] Other folk traditions
The folk music of Zagorje, an area north of Zagreb, is known for polka and waltz music similar to the neighboring Slovenia and Austria.
The folk music of Međimurje, a small but distinct region in northernmost Croatia, with its melancholic and soothing tunes became the most popular form of folk to be used in the modern ethno pop-rock songs.
In Istria and Kvarner, native instruments like sopila, curla and diple make a distinctive regional sound. It is diatonic in nature following the unique Istrian scale.
Ganga is an old style of singing mostly found in Dalmatia Zagora and Herzegovina, where usually a lone singer carries on a wail, often joined in by others.
[edit] Events
The Slavonian town Požega hosts a known folk music festival, Zlatne žice Slavonije (Golden strings of Slavonia), which has prompted musicians to compose new songs with far-reaching influences, recently including American bluegrass.
The towns of Vinkovci and Đakovo, also in Slavonia, host yearly folklore festivals (Vinkovačke jeseni and Đakovački vezovi) where folk music is also listened to as part of the tradition.
The town of Slavonski Brod holds an annual festival called Brodfest, where many of the great tamburica bands come together to play.
[edit] Popular music
[edit] Pop
The pop music of Croatia generally resembles the canzone music of Italy, while including elements of the native traditional music. Croatian record companies produce a lot of material each year, if only to populate the numerous music festivals. Of special note is the Split festival which usually produces the best summer hits.
Seasoned pop singers in Croatia include: Mišo Kovač, Ivo Robić, Vice Vukov, Arsen Dedić, Zdenka Vučković, Darko Domjan, Tereza Kesovija, Gabi Novak, Ivica Šerfezi, Oliver Dragojević, Tomislav Ivčić, Doris Dragović, and many others.
In more recent times, younger performers such as Severina, Gibonni, Marko Perković/Thompson, Toni Cetinski, Divas, E.N.I., Lvky and many others have captured the attention of the pop audience. Each of them has successfully blended various influences into their distinct music style. For example, Thompson's songs include traditional epic themes from the Dinaric regions; Severina threads between canzone and an oriental sound.
Croatian pop music is fairly often listened to in Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro due to the union of Yugoslavia that existed until the 1990s. Conversely, Bosnian singers like Kemal Monteno and Dino Merlin and Serbian Đorđe Balašević have a large audience in Croatia, as well as many others. Turbo folk, while being frowned upon by establishment and despised by majority of music critics and social commentators, was popular among large sections of Croatian youth, only to become somewhat more accepted in recent years.
Croatia is a regular contestant on the Eurovision Song Contest. Back in Yugoslavia, Croatian pop group Riva won the contest in 1989. Some of the other Croatians who performed on the ESC include Danijel Popović, Put, Boris Novković and Claudia Beni.
[edit] Rock
There are several rather popular and long-lasting mainstream rock acts like Parni Valjak, Prljavo Kazalište, Crvena Jabuka, Atomsko Sklonište etc. They originated in the 1970s and 1980s, and for the better part of their career resorted to a more mellow, mainstream pop-rock sound. Of some note is also the Sarajevo school of pop rock which influenced many of these bands, and which also included singers like Željko Bebek who later worked in Croatia.
However, Croatian New Wave (Novi Val) movement, which exploded in 1979/80 and lasted throughout the eighties, is considered by many to be the high watermark of Croatian rock music, both in terms of quality and commercial success. It was the time when Croatian rock scene, along with its Serbian (and to some extent, Slovenian) counterparts, was one of the most creative in the whole of Europe. The most influential and popular bands of Novi val were Azra, Haustor, Film, even early Prljavo Kazalište. Other notable acts were Animatori, Buldožer, Paraf, Patrola etc.
In the late 1980s, the region of Istria became home to a kind of called Ča-va, which often used the Čakavian dialect and elements of traditional Istra-Kvarner music.
The New Wave scene has collapsed by the end of the eighties, to be replaced by the newcomers like Daleka Obala, Majke and Laufer. While Daleka Obala sported a pop-rock sound influenced by Novi val, Croatian pop and even Dalmatian folk, Majke were a back-to-basics, garage-rock act stylistically influenced by bands like the Black Crowes, Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath. Laufer, led by Damir Urban (who later went on to form Urban & 4), were an early nineties alternative rock band taking their cue from the grunge movement.
Let 3 and KUD Idijoti are also prominent rock acts, popular both for their music and their interesting, often controversial, performances and stunts.
Beginning in the late 1980s, folk-rock groups also sprouted across Croatia. The first is said to be Vještice, who combined Međimurje folk music with rock and set the stage for artists like Legen, Lidija Bajuk and Dunja Knebl. At the same time on the other side of Croatia, in Istria, a band called Gustafi started playing their own strange amalgamate of rock and Istrian folk, but it took them more than a decade to reach the nationwide audience.
[edit] Dance
Dance music in Croatia was an offspring of the local pop music and more Western influences. It developed during the late 1980s and early 1990s, picking up on the trends such as euro disco and eurodance. It also spawned a wave of electronic music artists, mostly house, techno and trance.
The singer Vanna rose to prominence through the dance trio E.T., and the music of Vesna Pisarović has a fair bit of dance beat.
Although E.T. still operates, they've changed singers several times and lost in popularity. The band Colonia is perhaps the only one that rode the dance wave of the '90s and is still popular.
Lately, dance groups such as Karma or Kira Jordan have made international successes while not being particularly popular in Croatia.
[edit] Rap
The 1990s were marked by the emergence of Croatian rap music. The Ugly Leaders released the first ever Croatian Hip-Hop album, and gained a strong following in and around Rijeka. In 1991, the Croatian Liberation Front released two widely popular protest singles. The first rap band to gain widespread and lasting acclaim was The Beat Fleet (TBF) from Split, whose members took inspiration from harsh economic and social condititions of war-torn Dalmatia, not that different from American inner cities. Their act was followed by multitude of artists and groups in Zagreb, taking inspiration from American gangsta rap. The Zagreb rappers Bolesna Braća (also called Sick Rhyme Sayazz) and Tram 11 became particularly popular, and to an extent also the duo Stoka & Nered.
The Croatian rap gained much from the fact Edo Maajka signed on to a label in Zagreb. Recently a rapper known as Shorty gained a lot of popularity by having songs with strong regional flavour of his native Vinkovci. The Zagreb band Elemental also burst into the scene featuring one of the few Croatian female rappers.
[edit] Other
The tendency to combine different elements also has a long presence in more classical music: the opera Ero s onoga svijeta, written by Jakov Gotovac in the 1930s, blended the traditional music of the Dinaric peoples into a scholarly form and achieved great success.
The Sisak surf rock band The Bambi Molesters gained international fame, while being relatively unknown back home in Croatia.
[edit] Jazz
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[edit] References
- Burton, Kim. "Toe Tapping Tamburicas". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 1: Africa, Europe and the Middle East, pp 46-48. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. ISBN 1-85828-636-0
